Ben O'Loughlin has been invited to address a high profile conference in Washington DC next month on the theme of disinformation and the Ukraine crisis. The conference, Contentious Narratives: Digital Technologies and the Attack on Liberal Democratic Norms, is organised by Steven Livingston from Harvard University and takes place at George Washington University in downtown DC on 2-3 April 2018. It brings together three dimensions: 1) Strategic narrative theory, as developed by Miskimmon, O'Loughlin and Roselle; 2) Computational propaganda (speakers include Kate Starbird and Sam Woolley); and 3) The illiberal turn in global politics (speakers include Katharine Sikkink and John Shattuck). Is computational propaganda being used to promote illiberal strategic narratives that undermine the current world order, or is the picture more mixed?

NPCU is grateful to Steven for putting strategic narrative theory front and centre in the debate about the present and future world order.